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The Steve Laube Agency

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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing

What Is the Best Way to Submit My Self-Published Book?

By Steve Laubeon April 21, 2025
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We are asked this question so frequently that I have to re-run this post on a regular basis!

Since it has become so easy to self-publish, many authors are creating their own books, both in ebook and print form. Later, those authors are not quite sure what to do if/when they want to approach an agent. Or pitch to an editor at a conference.

Should they just send a copy of the book with a letter? Or should they create a proposal? Or do both? Is there truly a right way and a wrong way? And if you are at a writers conference, why not just bring a copy of the book? You may not like my answer:

It depends.

In my opinion, it is best to start over with a full proposal and sample chapters. In other words, act as if the self-published work doesn’t exist.

YET, at the same time, within the proposal itself you must, absolutely must, disclose that the book was self-published and has sold xxxx number of copies.

Why not just send the book? Or a PDF of the ebook? Or the Kindle file?

I didn’t say you couldn’t. What I said is that it is best to start over fresh. Why? Because of first impressions. Over the years, I’ve received hundreds of finished self-published books instead of proposals with sample chapters. Unfortunately, the artwork on the cover or the interior design or the printing quality of the book can be less than stellar. It is unfortunate, but I cannot avoid comparing your book to the covers I see from the industry’s finest designers. It is human nature to compare.

Beyond the book cover, I’ve seen some weird font inside a finished book, which rendered it unreadable. Or the author was trying to save printing costs by reducing page count. Try to imagine a printed book with an 8-point font, single-spaced. (Yes, that has happened–more than once.)

We’ve had people email a PDF of their entire self-published work. Often, the file size is enormous. Or another author sent me their epub file (expecting me to download the file, then upload it to my eReader). [Nope. Not going to happen.] More than once, we’ve been sent a flash drive with files on it that we were instructed to download for review. [We don’t know where your flash drive has been.] Or we frequently receive a link to a cloud-based folder to download the file. [Nope.] And believe it or not, I was once invited in an email pitch to buy their book on Amazon if I was interested in representing it. [????]

I mentioned full disclosure of sales above. If your book has sold 5,000 or 10,000 self-published copies, say that in your cover letter. That is significant news. (And that means full-price sales, not free ebook downloads.) It means you are quite the entrepreneur and know how to sell books. That is a good thing.

If your book only sold 75 copies, that isn’t quite as exciting.

The next question will be asked, “Of those 10,000 sold, at what price were they sold?” Plus, “Were those print sales or ebook sales?” If you say, “I sold 9,500 at 99 cents each,” that won’t move the needle.

Why do we ask those questions? Because if we represent the project, a major publisher will ask the same questions of us.

Ultimately, what you really want is to have your words be what is evaluated by the agent, the editor, and the publisher. Not whether or not you had a good graphic designer. The best way to make that happen is to present your story or nonfiction book plain and simple in a regular book proposal.

Of course, there are exceptions (and it is not a “rule,” only a guideline). There are times where the packaging of someone’s book is so terrific that it actually helps sell the book! But in a case like that, you are betting that the agent or editor has the same taste in design that you do. I’ll admit to being “sold” by an indie author’s extraordinary packaging of their book. It suggests they are willing to invest in their work and their brand, and they know good work when they see it. (But then if they did so well on their own, why are they looking for an agent? That is a question for another day.)

As always, check the agent’s guidelines before sending anything to an agent or a publisher.

Read and then add your thoughts to the previous comments below. The exchanges can be instructive.

[An earlier version of this post last ran in May 2020.]

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Category: Book Proposals, Indie, Self-PublishingTag: book proposals, Get Published, Self-Publishing

How to Know if Self-Publishing is for You

By Dan Balowon August 14, 2018
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Technology and Amazon.com have opened up the world of book publishing, making it far more “democratic” than ever before and allowing anyone with word processing software and connection to the internet, to become a published author. The traditional publishing industry is a $25 billion or more industry in the United States, generating about 300,000 new titles every year in all categories and …

Read moreHow to Know if Self-Publishing is for You
Category: Agents, Get Published, Marketing, Self-PublishingTag: Get Published, Self-Publishing

7 Good Reasons to Self-Publish

By Bob Hostetleron February 21, 2018
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I have mentioned before on this site (here and, most recently, here) that aspiring writers often shoot their publishing futures in the foot, so to speak, by self-publishing a book (or books). I won’t repeat myself again (see what I did there?). Instead, I will talk briefly about the good reasons to self-publish. There are many bad reasons to do so, of course (because no agents or editors seem to …

Read more7 Good Reasons to Self-Publish
Category: Indie, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Indie, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Life

Test Marketing Books

By Dan Balowon May 23, 2017
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In the traditional book-publishing world, insiders often refer to the initial release of a book from a new author as a marketing test…more R&D than launching and promoting a known product. The self-publishing process can function in a similar role of market testing for a first time author. You won’t know for certain how it will be received, but it is worth the effort to try. Most authors …

Read moreTest Marketing Books
Category: Book Business, Indie, Marketing, Self-Publishing, The Publishing LifeTag: Indie, Marketing, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Life

How Self-Publishing Has Changed Authors

By Dan Balowon January 24, 2017
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As a literary agent, not a day goes by when I don’t encounter the changes in thinking from authors caused by the expansion and availability of self-publishing. It’s understandable, because there are over twice as many books self-published every year in the United States than are published by traditional publishers. Traditional and self-publishing generate over one million new books every …

Read moreHow Self-Publishing Has Changed Authors
Category: Agents, Book Business, Book Proposals, Book Sales, Career, Economics, Get Published, Marketing, Self-Publishing, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing

Déjà Vu All Over Again – Indie (AND) Traditional Publishing

By Dan Balowon November 18, 2014
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The discussion of indie versus traditional publishing has been bothering me lately. I know it is still a relatively new issue that everyone involved in publishing needs to sort out, but what has been bothering me is that I know I have heard this kind of discussion before and could not think when. After much brain-racking, it finally dawned on me. It was in the 1980’s when personal computers were …

Read moreDéjà Vu All Over Again – Indie (AND) Traditional Publishing
Category: Book Business, TrendsTag: Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing, Trends

HELP! I’m a Self-Published Author

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 16, 2014
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Time and time again, self-published authors come to me asking for help. They self-published or published with a very small press and found that doing all of their own marketing and promotion resulted in sales in the three-figure range. Some authors are able to achieve the low four figures but that’s not much better as far as impressing a traditional publisher. A cumulative total of several …

Read moreHELP! I’m a Self-Published Author
Category: Career, IndieTag: Career, Get Published, Indie, Self-Publishing

News You Can Use – June 18, 2013

By Steve Laubeon June 18, 2013
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Self-Published eBooks Account for 12% of the Entire Digital Market – Watch the stats for trends.

How People Read Online – Does this mean I have to shorten my blog posts? And if I do will you still skip the last 2/3rds of what I write anyway?

Three Scriptural Cautions Against Self-Publishing – Do you agree or disagree? (and then read the next link below)

Three Reasons to Support …

Read moreNews You Can Use – June 18, 2013
Category: News You Can Use, SteveTag: blogging, Pitching, Self-Publishing

News You Can Use – Dec. 4, 2012

By Steve Laubeon December 4, 2012
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Guideposts sells Ellie Claire Line and Selected Summerside Titles to Worthy Publishing - Worthy Publishing adds a great gift book line along with some Summerside non-fiction to their company. Plus they added a new VP, Jason Rovenstine, who joins them from his similar role at Ellie Claire/Summerside. The Summerside fiction line remains with Guideposts with no editorial changes. Guideposts fiction …

Read moreNews You Can Use – Dec. 4, 2012
Category: New Book Releases, SteveTag: elevator pitch, Marketing, movie scripts, Self-Publishing

News You Can Use – July 31, 2012

By Steve Laubeon July 31, 2012
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#1 Secret of Great Writers - Joseph Putnam reveals a secret that everyone should know.

Great Keynote Speech from RWA - Stephanie Laurie graciously posted her rousing keynote presentation on the business of writing. (Thank you Debby Mayne for the link!)

21 Links to Fonts for Self-Publishing - On of the biggest mistakes I see in self published books is the use of the wrong font. This …

Read moreNews You Can Use – July 31, 2012
Category: News You Can Use, SteveTag: E-Books, fonts, Research, RWA, Secrets, Self-Publishing, typesetting, Writing Craft
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